


Rain

by AyashiTetsuko132



Series: AyashiTetsuko132's Muggle AU Series - Remus Lupin & Nymphadora Tonks [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Drug Abuse, F/F, F/M, Family Issues, Hurt/Comfort, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 18:30:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19950874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyashiTetsuko132/pseuds/AyashiTetsuko132
Summary: On a rainy night, Nymphadora Tonks talked of that time she ran away from home.In retrospect, she should have used the door instead.





	1. Drizzle

**Author's Note:**

> Time to talk about Tonks's past! 
> 
> Also, the couple reached an important milestone in this particular fic. Usually, my fics in this series work as a stand-alone, but this episode (and the next) might require a basic understanding of how they got together.

Nymphadora Tonks loved it when her man picked her up at work.

The pink-haired woman was sitting in the back office, replying to emails, when her colleague came in and told her that someone is here for her. She squealed delightfully before logging off the inbox and stood up to grab a studded leather jacket hung on the door. As she passed by, she informed the colleague of all the appointments that she had set for next week --they just have to reconfirm before D-Day.

Walking out of the makeshift, stuffy office behind the registration desk, she immediately beamed at the sight of Remus John Lupin standing inside the tattoo parlour.

He wore a dark brown long coat with speckles of raindrops on his shoulders. It seemed like he had once again forgotten to carry an umbrella, for his soft brown, greying hair was also slightly damp. 

Beneath the coat, Tonks could see the tweed suit that he likes to wear for work, with a white shirt peeking from underneath his favourite dark purple jumper. He carried a leather bag in one hand and a canvas bag in another. She knew that they contained test papers or some assignments he had given to his students.

The school teacher’s eyes lit up with curiosity as he stood facing a wall filled with photos of past clients and samples of tattoo designs.

In a room filled with the buzzing of needle machines and muscular men with tattoos all over their bodies, Lupin could not look more out of place, despite his equally wild and rebellious past in the rock band. But he was either oblivious to this fact or refuses to see this as a problem.

“Good evening. How may I help you?” Tonks approached him.

Lupin slowly turned towards her direction, eyeing her from head to toe. She had her usual work outfit on --band T-shirt, torn jeans with fishnet stockings underneath it, and combat boots-- and it brought a tender smile to the gentleman’s face.

“I am looking for one Ms Nymphadora Tonks.”

“And how can she be at your service?”

“Well … There are a few things …,” he moved closer to her direction. “That only she can do …”

He stopped just as he was about to bump into her, with his voice slowly turning into a whisper. "But I am not at liberty to disclose it.”

The couple stood in silence as they stared into each others’ eyes, both expected the other to say something. Eventually, their laughter broke.

At this point in their interaction, one tattoo artist, who was busy colouring a design on his client’s arm, sighed rather too loudly. “Oh, the beauty of young love.”

“Oh, shut up,” Tonks shouted at him, but the colour on her cheeks had almost matched that of her hair. “I’m leaving. Bye! See you on Monday.”

“Bye! Remember, do it safely.”

Lupin waved at his girlfriend’s colleague as they walked out of the shop. He only got to see her again outside; it was raining quite heavily, but Tonks already had a rainbow-patterned umbrella in her hand.

“Your customer service voice is on point,” Lupin commented, taking over the umbrella from her.

“Years of practice,” she replied. “Have I told you about that time I work at customer service, and told one to sod off? Apparently, that kind of attitude was not acceptable.”

“Interesting insight.”

It was a Friday night, and there was an air of freedom among the crowd that filled the streets. The rain had been pouring all day, but it failed to dampen the spirits of those who were looking forward to being free, after a week of hard work and restraint. 

The same went for our couple, walking down the street under the rainbow umbrella. Everything about them seemed to be made of contrasts and differences, from their age to the way they dressed, that it was no surprise some pedestrians were staring as they passed. But even these strangers could not help marvelling at the bubble of joy that seemed to be impenetrable by anyone --but the two of them.

The couple eventually stopped in front of a fast-food chain. Gasping in surprise, Tonks turned towards her man.

“You said you’ve been craving cheeseburger,” Lupin responded with a smile.

“But you don’t eat junk food.” 

It seemed like Tonks did not feel too good about this offer, but her man just shrugged. “They have salad.”

Soon after they found themselves sitting at a table with high stools that faced the window. While Lupin was already busy with his dinner, Tonks had hers relatively untouched. Instead, her attention was completely taken by a furry pink toy that she just received together with the meal. 

“You're just here for the toys,” Lupin commented.

“It’s a Pygmy Puff! I love them so much,” Tonks answered, bringing the thing closer to her face. 

Lupin swung his fork around. “My students are crazy about them. I think they have this game or something? These kids are trespassing and stepping into ponds to catch these monsters. The school had to issue a warning.”

“Pygmy Puff Go! Yeah, I play them too!”

“Oh, God."

Before Lupin could say anything else, a woman with her daughter came in and took a seat beside them. As soon as they settled in their place, the little girl immediately asked for the exact same toy with her meal.

While the mother went off to get their dinner, Tonks offered her toy for the little girl to play with. At some point, she even allowed the girl to touch her hair, which "looks very much like a real Pygmy Puff."

She only got to start eating once the little girl had gotten hers.

"You two get along so well," Lupin commented with a chuckle.

"She's very well-behaved! I screamed at Mum to buy me things when I was her age," Tonks said, taking a second bite. “I was such a nightmare."

“All kids do that. It’s a phase.”

“No, I think I was quite terrible. We once sat in this ice cream parlour, and I got hysterical because she wouldn’t let me have a second helping.” Tonks put her cheeseburger down. 

“I was also very, very impulsive. One time I almost got killed because I saw this dog across the street, and ran off just to pet it,” she continued.

Tonks then proceeded to finish the meal, but her man had stopped eating. Turning his head towards her direction, Lupin was drawn by how her tone changed just before she ended her story. 

They were only five minutes apart, but the woman who was sitting next to him looked completely different than the one who would not stop gushing about a fluffy toy. 

So he reached out to place his hand on her back. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, no … Nothing … It’s just …”

She waved her hands around; a piece of lettuce fell out of her cheeseburger. Then a painful expression showed up on her face as if she had to force a smile. “It’s just that … I get mellow when I talked about Mum.”

Avoiding her man’s gaze, Tonks then picked up two strings of French fries and pretended to be busy with them. 

But Lupin was much too perceptive of other people’s body language to let it go. While he never forces people to talk about their problems, he has a habit of giving them a moment of silence to think through things. With the hope that they would eventually start talking --without being asked to.

“Have I told you about that time I ran away from home?”

There you go.

“No. Not yet,” Lupin answered softly. “When was that?”

Tonks took another bite of her meal. Stopping for a moment, she licked her fingers off tomato sauce and grease before continuing her story.

“It was an embarrassing story. Embarrassingly sad.”

Sighing deeply, the woman then stared at something outside of the restaurant's window. “And it happened on a rainy night like this.”


	2. Thunderstorm

For Tonks, the easiest way to describe her relationship with her mother was as a love-and-hate relationship. 

There were days when she felt like screaming her love for that woman on the rooftops, but there were also days when they would fight endlessly about everything. But at some point in her adolescence, the hatred had overtaken her that she actually questioned if there was ever any love at all, in the first place.

First and foremost, that fool of a woman had named her _Nymphadora_. Never mind the struggles that she went through to learn to spell her own name. It was nothing compared to the profanities that people had written over her photo in the school yearbook.

(Hint: “Nymphomaniac” was not the worst of them.)

This was why, when she was younger, the girl liked to introduce herself as Nina or Nicole to new people. But when she started to forget which one that she had been using, she decided to stick to her surname --the short, practical, gender-neutral Tonks.

Second, her mother Andromeda may have been rebellious enough to elope with a commoner with no titles and assets to his name. But she could never deny the fact that she had been born and raised as royalty. 

Once she left home, the woman took up a retail job to help support her little family, living like countless other housewives in the country. Despite being exposed to this new way of living, Andromeda could never let go of the antiquated notion of how a young woman should behave, as taught by her parents. So she subjected her young daughter to strict rules and gruelling etiquette lessons which only seemed to intensify as her husband's career skyrocketed.

Little Tonks was made to wear frilly dresses and Mary Jane shoes even though she did not feel like a girl 100 per cent of the time. She was not allowed to laugh out loud and would get punished for climbing trees or playing with swords. Her mother even forced her to pick up piano lessons instead of the marching band club that she adored.

As expected, the more her mother insisted on her to act a certain way, the more inclined she was to rebel. Especially since, despite inheriting her mother's good looks, Tonks just had a very different aesthetic and fashion taste with her. 

She had made her mother scream when she came home with three piercings in each ear, also when she cut off her beautiful, dark, long locks into a style that resembled a boy's.

But nothing could ever prepare Tonks --let alone Andromeda-- for the night of her seventeenth birthday. 

She had long been aware of her pansexual tendencies, even before puberty kicked in. But that year was the first time she actually acted on it. Since it was her birthday, the girl was allowed to go out all day with her friends. But instead of going with a bunch of friends, Tonks turned the event into a romantic date by going with a special girl.

Being completely unaware of her mother's plan to pick her up later that day, she had to explain why she was holding a girl's hand at the shopping centre --and at some point, kissing her on the lips.

Her mother had been angry at her for countless times, but that night was the first time she actually laid a hand on her.

Tonks had had enough.

This was why, on one rainy Friday night, when her father was away on a business trip and her mother was fast asleep in her room, she executed a plan to leave the house for good. 

The girl decided to do it like in the films: By jumping out of her bedroom's window. 

Around 10 PM, Tonks was already fully dressed. She wore jeans, a band T-shirt, and an oversized flannel shirt that made her look even more like a boy. She needed supplies and clean clothes, so she also had a rucksack prepared. 

Putting on a bright yellow raincoat over the outfit, the girl then opened her window to start climbing down the wall. 

First, she stepped out of the window to plant her feet firmly on the roof. Then she moved towards the pipe that she had planned to use to climb down.

When her foot slipped off the roof, the girl asked herself if it was absolutely necessary to do it this way. Surely she could have just taken the front door?

What an idiot.

But it was too late to come back into the safety of her room. Cursing her stupidity, she fixed her position and proceeded climbing down anyway, breathing a sigh of relief when she managed to land without any incident.

Tonks punched the air and made a silent victory dance before dashing towards the small gate at the backyard, which had never been locked.

\--

It is important to note that Tonks was not alone in planning all of this. 

In fact, as soon as she left the house, the girl rushed to an underground live house in the city, where she often hung out to listen to the kind of music that her mother hated.

The rain had stopped falling, but Tonks did not get to take off her raincoat, so she stood out like a sore thumb when she slipped into the queue in front of the club. Tiptoeing, the girl lifted up her head as high as possible as she struggled to find a familiar face.

Her smile would only grow when she finally spotted her standing near the door of the club.

That girl had just shouted at a bloke for eyeing her short skirt for too long. Her wavy blonde hair went all the way to her back, and she always had this nice little choker that Tonks really liked. On a night out like this, she would wear dark makeup around her big blue eyes, which widened in excitement when she saw Tonks approaching through the crowd.

Many years later, in retrospect, Tonks saw the two of them as extremely dumb and desperate pair of adolescents. But in those days, it seemed like there was nothing but love between them. 

The kind of love that was worthy of an escape from one's own home.

"You made it!"

The two girls opened their arms wide, giggling as they got immediately tangled in a hug.

"I did it … I … I finally left the house." Tonks was still struggling to catch her breath when she finally let her girlfriend go. 

"You don't say!"

"No, seriously! I can't stand it anymore …” Tonks put her hands on the girl’s cheek. "I need to be with you."

Blondie laughed but responded to her girlfriend’s move anyway when she leaned in for a kiss. Ignoring people’s stares, the two girls dragged themselves towards the wall as they kept their lips locked, enjoying every twist and movement.

As soon as they were done, they walked into the club with their hands clasped together.

“Anyway, get rid of that raincoat. It's hideous,” Blondie whispered.

\--

The inside of the club always smelled like a disgusting combination of alcohol, sweat, and something more suspicious, but the visitors did not seem to give a damn. As the band continued to play, they jumped and shoved into each other, singing and screaming to the music that the band is playing. 

Being a part of this crowd, Tonks and her girlfriend kept their hands clasped together as they enjoyed a cover of one of The Weird Sisters’ most popular songs. Mostly because they were worried about being separated in this crowded room; but the girls were also celebrating Tonks’s first night of freedom, together.

At some point, the song stopped, and the guitarist moved on to play the intro to a ballad that Tonks recognised as the song _Lily_ by The Marauders.

“I really like this song!” she yelled at her girlfriend’s ear.

“It's really your night, isn’t it?” Blondie circled her hands around her girlfriend’s waist.

She then slipped her hand inside Tonks’s T-shirt, toying around with the space just above her tailbone. She knew perfectly well what being touched in that area would do to her, and her smile widened when she heard Tonks gasping for breath.

“Toilet. Now.”

The two girls then slipped through the crowd, running towards the back of the room.

They immediately rushed to the bathroom, which was strangely quiet at the moment. Through its dim light, the girls were able to see all three of the existing cubicles. One of them had their door opened, and they can see a pair of legs sticking out of it as if someone was pouring the contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl --but unfortunately, her legs were much too long for the space.

Ignoring the stranger, the girls then rushed into the cubicle in the middle, shut it close, and began their little adventure together.

Amidst the noise of their kissing and moaning, Tonks caught the sound of something falling to the floor. 

“What’s that?” She took herself away from her girlfriend’s lips.

“Who cares?” 

Blondie tried to kiss her again, but Tonks was completely distracted. She even started moving towards the cubicle’s door, completely oblivious to the fact that she had taken off her T-shirt and only had a sports bra on top of her jeans.

“Tonks! I’m literally topless here!”

“Ssst!”

“Tonks …”

The door opened, forcing Blondie to hurriedly put on her top again. Before she walked out of the cubicle, Tonks took a moment to peek around the room, but her eyes stopped at the cubicle on her right side.

The pair of legs that she had seen earlier was still there, but they are placed in a rather awkward position. 

It was as if the person had slumped down to the floor …

“Uh. Excuse me. Are you okay?"

There was no answer, so she walked out of her cubicle to the next.

“Tonks! What …” Having put on her top, Blondie ran to catch up with her girlfriend. 

The girl immediately screamed when she saw that the person inside was already on the floor with no sign of consciousness. There were syringe and burnt spoon scattered near her on the floor while the toilet bowl was dripping with what seemed to be her own vomit.

When she was still trying to grasp all this, Tonks was already jumping into the cubicle. “Get her up, quick!” 

But instead of stepping in to help her girlfriend, Blondie shuffled towards the restroom’s door.

“Help me here!”

“I'm not touching her! It's gross!"

“She needs help!"

"She's dead already!"

"No, we can still save her!" At this point, Tonks had put the person's arm around her shoulders to pick her up. "Just hurry!"

For a moment, in the midst of her anger, Blondie looked as if she was going to punch something in the air. She continued to stand on the same spot, her feet seemed to be hesitating between moving towards the cubicle --and another direction. 

Crouching in the dark cubicle, Tonks hoped that her hesitation means she was considering to help save the person. But that girl turned around and ran towards the restroom's door instead; before she slammed it shut, she endlessly muttered about not touching a "fuckin' dead body."

That was the last time Tonks ever saw her first girlfriend.


	3. Petrichor

“Did she make it?"

Eleven years had passed since the incident in the restroom of the live house. Tonks found herself sitting in a fast-food restaurant with her man, talking about the unpleasant experience in a bitter nostalgia.

The little girl in the next table had long gone, and their meals were all finished. But the couple showed no signs of wanting to leave.

"She’s still alive when the ambulance arrived. They did their best, but …" 

"I’m sorry."

"It's okay. I don't even know her."

"You did the right thing, though. You know, for trying to save her."

Lupin reached out to grab his girlfriend's hand. When he did, he rubbed them slowly, as if it was going to shoo the bitterness in her voice away.

Tonks laughed and shook his hand playfully. “This is why, despite going to Goldsmiths, I never had any interest in doing drugs.”

"Art school life, eh?"

"You have no idea," Tonks smirked.

"So, what happened to you? After the incident."

The girl laughed again. "Me? Nothing. They asked me questions. Then, early in the morning, my mother picked me up."

She sighed deeply. "Thus the end of my great escape from home."

Lupin let her hand go to grab one of the paper cups on the table. It was no longer clear which one was his, but he shook it around to check the contents. Then he pushed it towards his girlfriend's side. "Drink up."

"Oh yeah. Thanks! Need that."

The gentleman smiled as he watched Tonks opened the lid of the paper cup, gulping the soda down without the help of a straw. The girl then put the paper cup back with a satisfied grin.

“Thanks for sharing this story," Lupin said, crossing his arms on the table.  "I'm curious about one thing, though. Which part of it was embarrassing?"

Tonks stopped just as she was going to stretch her arms.

"I mean, you witnessed somebody died. Obviously, it was really sad. But how is it embarrassing?"

Tonks smiled. "Well, two reasons, actually."

"First, the person I fell in love with, the one I would leave home for … turned out to be a sore loser who wouldn't help a dying, suffering person in her feet. Even worse, she left me to deal with it by myself. Such an arse."

"Never saw her again?"

"We went to different schools. And I couldn't give a damn anymore."

"Okay."

"I’m embarrassed by the fact that I was in love with a person like that." 

"We’ve all been there, love."

Tonks did not look like she was paying attention.

"Second, I wasn't happy at home, Remus. But my attempt to leave it lasted for six hours," she continued. "It’s like, I wanted something big, but couldn't bring myself to achieve it. I wanted to run away, to escape! But in the end, I left the house for university, just like everyone else."

Lupin took his turn with the beverage. "Well, everything takes process, no? It does sound like you weren't ready to move out."

"Or … something else was holding you back," he added.

This is the part where Tonks finally stopped to consider her man’s words.

That night when her mother picked her up at the police station, she remembered thinking about how meticulous and stunning she looked, despite being forced to wake up at 3 AM to pick up her runaway daughter. She stood there without saying a word, but when Tonks walked towards her direction, she immediately opened up her arms and pulled her into a hug.

The first thing she said was, “I promise that your father will never hear about this.”

It stunned Tonks as, despite everything, despite her never telling Andromeda about it … She knew that her daughter’s greatest fear was to disappoint her father.

Once they got into the car, the next thing she told her was, “You’re not going to see her again. There are better women out there for you.”

The mother and daughter pair remained silent for the rest of the trip. When they woke up the next day, it was as if the runaway --and the incident that followed-- never happened.

Yes, they continued to have their fights. Andromeda still expected her daughter to grow her hair long again, and please, just wear a skirt for once. You can imagine her reaction when Tonks made her first tattoo --the gigantic wolf's head on her back.

But their fights were never about Tonks’s sexuality --or the fact that she once climbed out of the window to run away from home.

“Yes. Something was keeping me back,” she told Lupin.

\--

“And then this new neighbour asked me, ‘Where is your sister? I have not seen her for days’.”

The door to 394 Wolfsbane Drive swung open to reveal Lupin and Tonks walking in, their coat and jacket glistening with raindrops. Once inside, the couple stopped near a coat hanger to drop their umbrella and stuff.

“Imagine how confused I was, and apparently, she noticed it. So she told me, ‘Yes, Mr. Lupin, your sister! The nice young lady with candy-coloured hair!”

The couple laughed so hard that tears started running down their eyes.

But once the laughter faded, it looked as if they just realised that they were finally alone --with no prying eyes to stare at them and judging their differences. She made the first move by circling her hands on his waist, leaning herself on his chest while staring at him wistfully.

They were soon locked in a kiss.

“Ready for the weekend to start?” he whispered.

“Mmm. I have an idea,” she replied. “Let’s do it by the window. Give the new neighbour a little surprise."

“I’ll make sure to wave at her when I’m banging you." 

“Who knows? It might be her thing."

Giggling, Tonks dragged her boyfriend towards the sofa in the living room, as if she was the owner of the place --and not him.

Lupin did not make any attempt to reject when she pushed him down to the sofa. If anything, he kept a close watch on her every move, challenging her to surprise him. 

The woman then sat on his lap, facing him with her arms around his shoulders. As they continued kissing, his hand toyed around that miraculous little spot above her tailbone, earning him a soft moan between the kisses.

He stopped only to ask a single question. "Are you wearing what I asked you to?” 

She gave no answer but to peek inside her own T-shirt. Winking at him, she took it off and threw it away nonchalantly.

Instead of the usual sporty number, she put on a black, lacy one, especially for that night.

He covered his mouth in excitement; his gaze a mix between hunger and awe. Eventually, the couple dropped all words and let their lips --and hands-- do the work for them.

“Remus …”

“Hm?”

“Do you know what I really, really want in life?”

“Headlining Glastonbury?"

"Mmmm."

"Solo exhibition of your art?"

"One more thing."

“Tell me.”

She kissed him softly on the chest before lifting up her head. “I want to be a mother.”

He froze. 

Her hands were unbuttoning the lower parts of his shirt, but they stopped midway. "That’s … the wrong thing to say pre-coital, isn’t it?”

“Well …”

It was, then. 

Lupin took a deep breath before tapping her shoulders softly, gesturing for his girlfriend to get off his lap and sit by his side. "Dora …"

Once she had moved to sit next to him, he then reached out to grab her hand.

“I thought we've made it clear already: It’s one thing that I can never give to you," he said.

He then waved his hand around, seeming to struggle to get his point across. “I … I won’t risk spreading the virus to you, let alone to a child.”

The man went quiet, looking as if his whole world just ended in a second. But instead of displaying an equally morose facial expression, his girlfriend responded by laughing out loud instead.

“Excuse me?"

“You silly old man,” she giggled, pinching his nose. “Did you even listen? I said I want to be a mother."

She placed her hand on his chest. "I never said I want to be a  _ biological _ mother.”

Lupin blinked in confusion. But after a few seconds, he rubbed his face and stared at his girlfriend, looking exhausted. 

"Adoption?" He asked.

She nodded comically.

"Doesn't matter boy or girl. But if there are siblings, then we should never separate them. We bring them all in and raise them as our babies." Her eyes widened at her two last words.

Tonks took a look around and pointed at the armchair that used to belong to Lupin's father. "Can you see yourself reading them books on that armchair?"

She then pointed at a piano at the other side of the room, which used to belong to Lupin's mother. "Or teaching them ''Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'? We're going to introduce them to cool music, as soon as possible!"

Lupin did not give an answer; he continued to stare at the piano. But judging from the glint in his eyes, Tonks knew that he had been replaying the images in his mind. "Come on. You like it! You want to be a dad." 

She added in a whisper, "You got what it takes."

Tonks poked his rib perpetually until the man can no longer hold his smile --and his laughter. 

The girl then cocked her head in front of his face. "Is that a yes?” 

Lupin sighed. "Next year?”

Tonks nodded. “Next year.”

He then made a move to kiss her forehead. “You always have the best ideas.”

\--

Nymphadora Tonks turned on the lights in the kitchen before dragging herself towards one of the cabinets, where the glasses were being kept. She got one out and used it to pour water in, gulping it down with gusto.

The woman sat at the dining table, turning the glass around. She was woken up abruptly by her thirst; as one always does at this hour, her mind had been led astray by ideas that she would not notice in the middle of the day.

It reminded her that it had been almost a year since Lupin and she started their relationship.

Ever since then, she had spent almost every weekend at his place --except when it was his turn to stay at her flat, which she shares with a mate. She knew where everything is kept, from kitchen utensils to his old T-shirts, which she liked to wear whenever she was around. She even kept her own toothbrush and a box of tampons in the bathroom and had already had her designated side on the bed in the master bedroom.

394 Wolfsbane Drive had become like a home to her.

But what is home?

As always, talking about Mum made her think of the idea of “home”. She used to think of home as a place of comfort, both physically and mentally. But having Andromeda Black Tonks as a mother taught her differently.

Love can be discomforting, that was one thing. 

The past year had also given her new ideas of what home is. Home can be a chance meeting on the bus that led her to the path that she had been dreaming of. Home is smile and laughter, and the belief that every single second exists to be enjoyed. 

Home can even be chronically ill; with a disease that is set to eat him away. Home may even have deep emotional trauma. 

But home is that person standing next to you. You are two different individuals, but you are also aware of that sameness, that strange bond shared whenever you two are together.

Most importantly, home is love.

Standing up, Tonks moved towards the kitchen’s window. She noticed that the rain had finally stopped falling; she could imagine herself being outside, revelling in the sweet scent of the earth. But she knew that it would be really cold at the moment, so she killed the idea of going out.

Instead, the woman returned to the master bedroom upstairs. 

Tiptoeing back into the bed, she laughed silently when she caught sight of her man, sleeping in the very same spot as she had left him. Wrapped in a blanket, she could only see his eyes and his messed up hair peeking out of it.

Tonks marvelled at the fact that he always seemed to be sleeping deeply --and peacefully. 

Just like a little boy. Whom they might have one day. Soon. Within a year.  Does that mean she can start expecting The Other Conversation as well?

Feeling a sudden pang of melancholy, Tonks leaned in to give him a nice little kiss on the forehead.

She was wriggling her way into the blanket when he started to move.

“Where were you?”

“Kitchen.”

“Okay.”

“Remus.”

“Hm?”

It was about time she asked the big question.

“Can I move in here?”

**END**


End file.
